Magento Presents:Community Insights
The Definitive Guide to a SuperchargedMagento Store
Brought to you by:
Magento is proud to present ‘Community Insights’ to help merchants develop strategies and tactics to better serve their customers.
The Magento Partner Community is a trusted network of consulting and technology companies that help merchants grow their business, and create engaging customer experiences with the Magento Platform. These organizations provide valuable insights and practical takeaways from their real world experiences with merchants like you.
THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO A
SUPERCHARGED MAGENTO STORE
By Magento Premier Technology Partners
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................ 3
01 – SUPERCHARGING MAGENTO THROUGH 1:1 PERSONALIZEDCUSTOMER EXPERIENCES ............................................................................. 4Personalization via Retargeting ................................................................................ 7Personalization via On-site Promotions .................................................................. 10
02 – USING EMAIL TO POWER RELEVANCY, REACHAND REVENUE ............................................................................................. 12Today’s Consumer is a Multichannel Buyer ............................................................. 14It starts with Smart Segmentation .......................................................................... 16Quick Wins with Cart Recovery ................................................................................. 19
03 – CLOSING THE CX LOOP WITH SHIPPING & FULFILLMENT .................. 21Key Shipping & Fulfillment Challenges .................................................................... 24How to Supercharge Shipping .................................................................................. 25
04 – UNDERSTANDING SITE SEARCH, MERCHANDISING ANDNAVIGATION TO GROW ON MAGENTO ....................................................... 30The Importance of Machine-Learning Site Search .................................................. 32Built-in Dictionary...................................................................................................... 34Utilizing Smart Merchandising.................................................................................. 35Making Navigation Easier ........................................................................................ 36Putting the Puzzle Together ..................................................................................... 38
05 – SURPRISE WEBINAR - WHAT YOUR MAGENTO STORESHOULD LOOK LIKE IN 2018 ....................................................................... 39
06 – HOW TO BEAT THE BURDEN OF TAX COMPLIANCE TO SPEEDUP YOUR MAGENTO STORE ........................................................................ 415 Signs your Magento Store Needs a Sales and Use Tax AutomationSolution ..................................................................................................................... 44Top Tips for European Businesses Going into the US .............................................. 45See How Tax Automation Cleared Up This Magento Merchants TaxHeadache ................................................................................................................... 48Key Takeaways .......................................................................................................... 49
THE END OF THE SUPERCHARGE JOURNEY ............................................... 50Retargeting in 2018 ................................................................................................... 50
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INTRODUCTION
In 2016, an estimated $101 billion in digital commerce sales were processed through
the Magento platform, which means that there’s an enormous amount of digital
commerce data available to help you optimize your online business. Understanding
how customers behave on Magento powered stores, and how that behavioral data
can be made actionable, is key for growing your business.
That’s why we’ve created this guide.
Powering your online store with Magento gives you access to a world of resources,
and connects you to an ecosystem unrivaled by any other platform provider.
This guide is brought to you by members of that expansive ecosystem – Magento
Premier Technology Partners.
Each Magento Premier Technology Partner is an expert in their field and provides
cutting-edge technology that helps you extend the core capabilities of Magento
Commerce. Through personalization, shipping, search, email marketing, payments,
and more, these technology providers help you supercharge your Magento-
powered store to increase sales revenue and business growth.
In this guide you’ll learn about the opportunities provided by the Magento
ecosystem to empower your business growth. You’ll find customer behavior data,
real-life examples and actionable next steps to take you all the way from theory to
execution.
The result? One supercharged Magento store.
Let’s get started…
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SUPERCHARGING MAGENTO
THROUGH 1:1 PERSONALIZED
CUSTOMER EXPERIENCES
01
THIS CHAPTER WAS WRITTEN BY NOSTO
Nosto enables online retailers to deliver their customers personalized shopping experiences at every touch point, across every device. A powerful personalization solution designed for ease of use, Nosto empowers retailers to build, launch and optimize 1:1 multi-channel marketing campaigns without the
need for dedicated IT resources. Thousands of Magento retailers are already using Nosto to grow their business and delight their customers. Nosto supports its retailers from its offices in Helsinki, Berlin,
Stockholm, London and New York. Learn more ››
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01
In the Econsultancy/Adobe Quarterly Digital Intelligence Briefing over 40%
of all online retailers said that in the next five years, they were planning on
differentiating themselves from their competitors by offering exceptional customer
experience. But if you’re in that 40% (and you should be!) how do you come out
ahead in this race to be the best?
There’s no doubt about it: delivering an exceptional customer experience requires
an individualized approach to each and every visitor. And that's not only on
your online store, but throughout all retail touch points and all devices. This
multichannel approach means delivering the right content to your customers at the
right time, over the right channel – across both sessions and devices.
The power of 1:1 personalization lies in a combination of big data analysis and
knowing how to leverage it. It’s only when you have both that you’re able to offer
your customers a 1:1 personalized customer experience, and in doing so, power
your business growth.
Traditionally, the combination of traffic, conversion and average order value have
been the top line metrics from which an ecommerce business tracks operative
success. But there’s a more important performance metric that should be
considered: Can you grow faster and – even more importantly – can you do so
quicker than your competition?
“I think it’s (Personalization) the hardest thing out there. It’s still early for true
personalization.”– Mark Lavelle, CEO of Magento Commerce
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Personalization can help. Its power comes from the amount of data there is to
analyze: specifically, how much traffic you already have coming to your site. In this
guide we’re going to help you supercharge your Magento store, increasing your
conversion rate and average order value, and in doing so, increasing customer
lifetime value and your overall business growth – your ultimate KPI.
MAGENTO – SUPERCHARGED!
To supercharge your Magento store by delivering 1:1 customer experiences through personalization you need two things:
A solution capable of collecting, analyzing and making all of your visitor data accessible
Knowledge of how to make the data actionable and impactful.
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PERSONALIZATION VIA RETARGETING
Statistically, the vast majority of your customers will leave your site without buying
(if you’re a retailer with a conversion rate above 50% let us know – we want to
know your secret!). In fact, the average customer to a Magento powered store
visits the store 1.8 times before making a purchase, which means that only on the
third visit does the average customer buy something.
Those average three visits happen on a number of different devices and channels –
making the modern day buyer journey no longer a linear one, but more like a plate
of loosely connected spaghetti. The old way to target customers was through the
use of cookies, but a far more effective one is via your customer’s individual profile.
This allows for a more engaging and personalized customer experience, since
customers are able to continue where they left off, regardless of the device they’re
using.
Most ecommerce traffic to Magento powered stores comes via mobile (43.7% of all traffic), but
the majority of all revenue still comes through desktop (57.9% via desktop vs. 28.6% via mobile).
What does that tell us? That customers still use mobile for inspirational browsing, but move to
desktop to finalize their purchases. (Source: ’2016 Magento year in review’ report)
By adding the Facebook tracking pixel to your site, you can collect and leverage the
rich data Facebook has on your visitors, and use those small digital breadcrumbs to
lead the customers back to your store. An alternative way to identify the customer is
to identify them by using a cookie or have them log into your store, which allows you
to track their behavior and build your own profile on them.
PRO TIP: POP-UPS AREN’T DEAD!
When visitors land on your store, to encourage them to buy something and/or leave their details so you can retarget them, display one of the following:
A discount pop-up encouraging visitors to complete a purchase (if they show signs of leaving the site without buying)
An email capture pop-up offering a discount, loyalty points or free gift should the visitor give their email address
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HOW TO DO IT?
Re-engage on Facebook and Instagram: Customers don’t always have the time,
budget or motivation to complete a purchase then and there. By retargeting
them via the channels they use the most, you’re more likely to get them
back on your site to complete a purchase. In fact, according to Nosto data,
retargeting cart abandoners on Facebook generates on average a 14x ROAS.
RETAILER EXAMPLE: Fashion store Eton generated 19X ROAS on Abandoned cart recovery ads. Learn how ››
Tailor the email experience: Make your emails relevant to each individual
customer by automatically populating each email with personalized
recommendations.
RETAILER EXAMPLE: Bodybuilding Warehouse added Nosto’s email widgets to dotmailer’s
email templates and achieved a 20% increase in email conversions. Learn how ››
Retarget customers who’ve already completed purchases: Shoppers who
return to a store after being retargeted with post-purchase ads provide a
significant ROAS on Facebook. Even better, the second and third purchases are
statistically higher in AOV than the first.
RETAILER EXAMPLE: Magento powered Volcom has seen great results with Facebook
retargeting campaigns. Learn how ››
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2017 - MAGENTO YEAR IN REVIEW
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PERSONALIZATION VIA ON-SITE PROMOTIONS
It’s the job of smart algorithms and advanced machine learning engines to power
1:1 personalization. They do this by collecting behavioral data, product relationships
and information on visitors based on location, product interests, brand affinity, style,
and price sensitivity. Once the data is compiled from both user profiles and product
relationships, it’s automatically analyzed to deliver the best fit for each situation.
For instance, on the product page it makes sense to place more weight on product
relationships to ensure the customer finds what they are looking for. On the other
hand, a reminder of previous interests and other items related to those they viewed
work like a charm on places like the home and cart page, for increased conversion
and AOV.
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HOW TO DO IT?
Welcome customers back with highly personalized content: Part of the secret
to Amazon’s whopping 13% conversion rate is the fact that when visitors
land on the site, they’re immediately met with the items they’re most likely to
purchase. Use your customer insight to create a ‘recommended for you’ section
– a selection of products based on each customer’s unique browsing and
buying behavior. This makes it easy for them to continue shopping where they
previously left off.
RETAILER EXAMPLE: Magento powered fashion & lifestyle store Knomo is seeing a 16% increase
in AOV for personalization elements on the homepage.
Take advantage of your last 1:1 on-site opportunity by personalizing the
cart page: The cart page is one area in your store especially suited to 1:1
personalization. Why? Because the items that have made it here, into the
virtual cart, are most in-line with your customer’s buying preferences. This
information is invaluable and puts you in the best possible position to
recommend items that are most likely to increase basket value.
When used correctly, personalization drives customer engagement with visitors
browsing more items and spending more time on the site. It also increases
conversion and generates an enhanced customer experience – generating more
happy customers that return to your store. All to drive that all important bottom
line: the growth of your business.
Voila – one supercharged Magento store, thanks to the power of 1:1 personalization!
PRO TIP: THINK MOBILE!
Increase image use and prioritization when thinking mobile first – mobile users are very inclined to click visual cues instead of text. By appealing
to this trait you can push this metric (and consequently other metrics like conversion, AOV and revenue) to hockey stick growth.
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USING EMAIL TO POWER
RELEVANCY, REACH AND REVENUE
02
THIS CHAPTER WAS WRITTEN BY DOTMAILER
As a Magento Premier Technology Partner, dotmailer provides marketers with an easy to use email marketing platform to do smarter marketing and increase online sales. Build automation campaigns,
clever segments and optimised landing pages without needing to code. Seamlessly integrate your other ecommerce tools or data and call on expert teams as and when needed, from technical to creative.
Trusted by 8000 merchants globally, including Paul Smith, Habitat, Paperchase and Edcon. Learn more ››
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02
Now we’re going to go deep into one of the areas mentioned in Chapter One:
personalization and email. Consider the number of marketing messages that arrive
in the average person’s inbox from week to week – how do you stand out from the
crowd?
The key to differentiating your brand from the competition is to develop human-
sounding conversations. And while that might initially sound time consuming,
by adopting segmentation and marketing automation, you have the tools that’ll
enable you to deliver personalized messages at huge scale.
It’s over to you, dotmailer…
Email is the workhorse of the digital marketing suite. It’s stood the test of time, not
least because it’s remained the preferred communications channel for consumers
to stay in touch with brands. Handing over an email address is much less of a
commitment than providing, say, a phone number.
On top of that, email is also cost effective, delivering the best return on investment
(ROI) out of any of the digital marketing channels – more than $39 for every $1
spent, to be precise (DMA, 2017). And the great news for ecommerce business
owners is that the technological advancements in email marketing mean it’s never
been simpler for retailers to communicate with their customers on a really personal
level.
In chapter 1 we stressed that data is key to being able to personalize the website
and to enable remarketing tactics. To initiate 1:1 conversations via email, it’s no
surprise that data is again the essential component. At dotmailer, we understand
that the key to success is maintaining a single view of the customer, which is only
achievable through connected systems. It’s why we offer a seamless, real-time
integration for Magento – the world’s number one ecommerce platform.
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TODAY’S CONSUMER IS A MULTICHANNEL BUYER
When we refer to ‘mobile’ in this guide, it’s worth clarifying that we will also be
looking beyond the physical smartphone or tablet itself. We believe ‘mobile’, in a
metaphorical sense, means giving consumers the power to keep your brand in their
back pocket, so they can pick you up whenever and wherever they might need
you.
After all, in today’s world, most of us no longer distinguish between a ‘digital’ and a
‘non-digital’ experience.
Your customer sees your brand as a unified entity that should provide a consistent,
seamless experience whatever platform they choose to engage with you.
While your social networks, your website, your app and your stores (if you have
them) provide touchpoints, you also need to consider how you drive people to
those channels. The age-old saying ‘out of sight, out of mind’ is especially true
here, and if you’re not regularly communicating with customers on a personal level,
you risk losing their business in the future.
As a ‘push’ channel, email is a natural enabler here because it provides a vehicle for
you to reach out to prospects and customers.
PRO TIP: CAPTURE EMAIL SIGN-UPS IN-STORE
Paul Smith recognizes that some of its most valuable customers shop on more than one channel, e.g. browsing online then going into the store to try and buy. This is why the company localizes email content for customers on
occasion, driving them to store events that are local to them.
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Example 1: Online email subscribers/shoppers in & around London
Paul Smith also encourages staff to collect email addresses in-store and sends
the customer a simple welcome email that recognizes the interaction, letting the
customer know exactly what will be coming their way via email. Of course, the
email is mobile optimized in case they are still out shopping when it arrives.
Example 2: Welcome program from in-store signups
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IT STARTS WITH SMART SEGMENTATION
If you have a healthy database, there is almost an infinite number of ways in which
you can segment your contacts. However, what we’re going to show is why it’s
smart to prioritize identifying your most valuable customers and what you can do
to encourage them to convert. Email segmentation is not new but it’s by no means
an outdated technique, with 51% of marketing influencers saying that the ability to
segment email lists is the most effective personalization tactic (Ascend 2, 2016).
With the dotmailer for Magento integration, the customer data from your store is
at your fingertips. You can see who’s been on your site and the device they used to
view it, what they browsed, favorited, added to their cart or purchased, as well as
when they completed purchases and how much they spent during their customer
lifetime (and much, much more!). From this information, it’s possible to work out
who matters most to your business and how best to target each of them.
For instance, when it comes to your regular ‘high-value’ customers, you’ll want to
keep in regular contact and target them with more expensive products. However,
to make your campaigns really effective and relevant, it’s necessary to get much
more granular. You also know exactly what these customers have purchased
and on what device, giving you the insight to target them with products of likely
interest – and in a way that lets them buy wherever, whenever.
51% OF MARKETING INFLUECERS SAY THAT THE
ABILITY TO SEGMENT EMAIL LISTS IS THE MOST
EFFECTIVE PERSONALIZATION TACTIC.
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HOW TO DO IT?
A common method for ‘grouping’ or personalizing at scale is to create content
around different product categories within your store.
Let’s say you’re an online homewares business selling items for every room in
the house. You want to target regular buyers who typically browse and purchase
bedroom-related products in the higher price bracket – in this case, it’s luxury
bedlinen.
Your next step would be to create some tailored content to go into the body of
your email that features products from this category. You could also go one step
further by including helpful value-add content, such as a guide on ‘Choosing the
right bedlinen for the seasons’.
Finally, you need to create your segment. In dotmailer, it’s easy to build segments
with the ability to drag and drop different queries. The queries you set will
automatically mine the data fields associated with each customer record and
generate the segment based on your requirements.
You may think that this seems like quite a lot of effort to go to, but remember that
these are some of your most valuable customers, and consumers in general are
much more inclined to engage with relevant, focused communications. In the 2016
DMA Consumer Tracker Report, 84% of people claimed that they now find less
than half of brand emails interesting or relevant – so personalization is definitely
the way to win and keep the hearts of your customers.
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PRO TIP: USE SEGMENTATION TO STIR UP
SUBSCRIBER ENGAGEMENT
Gourmet flavor and syrup manufacturer Monin used segmentation to reinvigorate a different segment of its database: inactive contacts. Its
re-engagement campaign – called Relationship on the Rocks – involved segmenting and targeting inactive contacts from the last seven to 12
months. The email’s subject was titled ‘Are we breaking up?’ and asked recipients whether they wanted to continue receiving emails from Monin.
An impressive 25% of contacts opted to stay connected with the brand. Monin
was able to rekindle the love with more than 2,100 waning subscribers and remove
those who had become disinterested, ultimately savings costs and resources, and
improving overall engagement rates.
In the next part of this guide, we’ll be exploring how your valuable customer
data can be turned into a money-generating machine when combined with email
marketing automation.
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QUICK WINS WITH CART RECOVERY
We’ve already spoken about targeted campaigns, and this piece of advice is a
simple (and automated) extension of that. dotmailer for Magento holds full details
of customers’ shopping carts, namely when items have been abandoned. With a
simple automation program, dotmailer can dynamically pull the details of yet-to-
be-purchased products into an email and deliver timely reminders to the customer.
There are many reasons why customers don’t make it through the checkout – from
account creation barriers to the lack of a mobile-responsive website – so this
is your chance to turn things around and bag that sale. eMarketer predicts that
the share of smartphone sales will grow to 65% in 2017, making the ‘mobile-first’
mindset a priority for any ecommerce business.
Interestingly, in the 2017 dotmailer Hitting the Mark benchmark report, 60% of
retailers didn’t use email marketing automation to try and recover the sale. Clearly
there’s a huge opportunity to be had, especially when abandoned cart emails
convert at an average of over 28% (ShopCycle, 2017).
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HOW TO DO IT?
This is often the first automated email campaign that online retailers implement
and there are a few crucial things to consider. For instance, whether you have one
abandoned cart email or a series of them. First up is the reminder of what products
have been left in the cart, accompanied by images and the price. The second ‘must
have’ is great copy that’s on-brand.
HiHouse covers both of these off. Note the use of ‘don’t get caught short’. The
brand sells everyday goods for the household so this acknowledges that while it’s
likely not the most exciting purchase, these items are a necessity! The button is
also clever, offering help to complete the purchase.
We hope this guide has helped you to understand why email marketing is primed
to supercharge your ecommerce business. At dotmailer, our advice to customers is
to start start small, think big and scale quickly; it’ll set you on the path to achieve
maximum ROI. Good luck!
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CLOSING THE CX LOOP WITH
SHIPPING & FULFILLMENT
03
THIS CHAPTER WAS WRITTEN BY TEMANDO
Magento Premier partner Temando offers a multi-carrier shipping platform for commerce that helps retailers manage the fulfillment process from the shopping cart through to delivery. Temando’s software
solutions give merchants the power to move goods from anywhere they are to wherever they need to be. Learn more ››
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03
So far, we’ve looked at how you can optimize your digital marketing, both off and
on-site, to supercharge your Magento store. But once a customer buys from you,
there’s still a key part of the journey to come – namely, shipping and fulfillment.
It can be a key differentiator between you and your competition, so how do you
make sure you’re staying ahead of the pack?
Let’s turn to Temando…
While Magento makes it easy for you to set up your online store, deciding how best
to optimize your shipping and fulfillment processes may be daunting. Commonly
known as a loss leader, shipping can be a costly exercise if your IT systems and
infrastructure are misaligned. With 50% of UK retailers surveyed for Temando’s
2017 State of Shipping in Commerce report admitting that they needed to improve
their shipping and fulfillment automation, having a guide to help you get the most
out of your shipping and fulfillment – and learn how to use it to boost customer
experience (CX) – is a great step towards supercharging your Magento store.
Here, you’ll discover the common challenges that retailers face, how consumer
expectations around shipping has changed, and what you can do today to help set
yourself up for success tomorrow. First, try out the simple quiz on the following
page to find out if your current approach to shipping and fulfillment is on track. Arrow-Down
If you got at least 8 points for the quiz, congratulations – you’re a rare breed and on
your way to being a retail superstar! For most, the reality is that many of the best
practice items listed in the quiz pose challenges – either in terms of operational
efficiencies, quality and consistency of customer service, ability to scale, and ultimately
its impact to the bottom line.
Temando’s report also showed that up to 56% of UK shoppers abandoned their cart
due to shipping-related pain. With this in mind, are you confident that your shipping
and fulfillment processes will put you in good stead to win a sizeable share of the $86.7
billion e-commerce sales pie that’s forecasted for this year? Let’s look at the the types
of challenges that retailers currently face when it comes to shipping and fulfillment.
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KEY SHIPPING & FULFILLMENT CHALLENGES
Consumers today want more, for less: Due to market disrupting models by the
likes of Amazon Prime, many shoppers have evolved to expect a lot more from
their shipping services – be it in the range of delivery options, level of post-
purchase communications, or ease of returns. Shoppers have grown accustomed
to the concept of ‘free shipping’, with 37% stating that they’ll abandon cart when
this option is not made available to them, and almost 60% indicating that they’ll
do the same if they considered shipping costs to be too high.
Pro tip: Don’t let ‘free shipping’ bleed your profit margins dry. Uncover how to make this
conversion tactic work for you with our Free Shipping Tips ››
Retailers aren’t innovating fast enough: Almost all UK retailers surveyed
acknowledged the value of shipping to enhancing customer experience, with
32% stating that they saw a CX uplift when they introduced better shipping
options. Despite this, only 29% planned to invest in improving CX in the next
12 months. This slow footed approach may be attributed to the struggles that
retailers faced with getting shipping and fulfillment automation right while they
juggle rising carrier costs.
Pro tip: Overwhelmed by shipping and fulfillment at peak periods, such as the holidays? Let our
Holiday Retailing Tips give you the head start that you need.
Gap between consumer and retailer is too wide: With close to 60% of
shoppers stating that they’ll buy from a competitor if a desired shipping option
is unavailable, failing to right the wrongs when it comes to shipping is risky
business. Almost 50% of shoppers surveyed wanted same-day shipping, but
currently only 21% of retailers offered this service. Likewise, 60% of shoppers
wanted the ability to reserve a delivery time-slot but only 32% of retailers
offered this, while 29% plan to offer it in the future.
Pro tip: Give yourself that edge by using great shipping and fulfillment practices to drive your
business forward. Download The Delivery Advantage e-book now to find out how.
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HOW TO SUPERCHARGE SHIPPING
At Temando, we believe that challenges give way to great opportunities to
innovate – and there’s no better time to lift your retail game than now. Here’s five
tips on how you can supercharge your shipping and fulfillment, to transform it into
a CX-rich profit making tool.
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1 – INCREASE SHIPPING OPTIONS
Retailers have told us that they’ve enjoyed better conversion when they’re
successful at providing their customers with more shipping choice. Aside from
the traditional delivery options such as ‘standard’ and ‘express’, why not consider
adding the increasingly popular ‘same-day’, ‘hyperlocal’ (1-3 hours), ‘weekend or
after-hours’ and ‘specified timeslot’ services into the mix? Admittedly, in theory
this sounds great, but often the investment required to onboard carriers and
update IT systems discourages many retailers from acting. For this change to work
well, retailers need a solution that is easy to use and saves them valuable time to
nurture those new conversions that come their way as a result of providing better
shipping choice.
How? Consider adding a multi-carrier platform (such as the soon to be released
Magento Shipping) into the mix to make this process easier for you. Aside from
enabling you to access a range of carriers that each excel in different delivery types
and locations in one view, you’ll be able to automate the process of matching the
delivery request to the most suitable carrier – with confidence that it’ll always be
the fastest and cheapest option.
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2 – MASTER SHIPPING PROMOTIONS
Shoppers love ‘free shipping’, but are you hesitant to implement this because it
cannibalizes your profit margin? Rather than walking away from this proven tactic,
why not leverage shipping technology to create rules, so that you can engineer
an entire range of ‘free shipping’ promotions that drive profit, not loss, for your
business? To be successful at implementing shipping promotions, retailers need
to have the ability to fully control the ‘who, what, where, when’ of each promotion
that is running.
How? By using shipping rules to curate ‘free shipping’ promotions, you can be as
agile and creative as you want to be. Consider testing a few promotions within
a controlled environment first before committing to larger projects. Think about
pushing slow-moving products by tagging free shipping on when a spend threshold
is met, or reinvigorate slow trading days by announcing to your inner city-based
loyal customers an exclusive free shipping offer if they purchased between 9am
to 5pm on Mondays? Remember that having access to suitable carriers that can
complete the last mile delivery based on your offers is key to executing this tactic
well.
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3 – LEVERAGE YOUR LOCATIONS
In a 2017 PwC/JDA study, only 10 percent of the 350 global retailers surveyed
profit from fulfilling e-commerce orders, so we know that fulfillment is challenging
for almost everybody. With optimized fulfillment identified as one of the reasons
why Amazon has been able to grow so quickly, ensuring your processes in this
area are aligned to your IT systems and vice versa is imperative. Leveraging your
locations is one way of fixing this issue. From Temando’s report, we found that
UK enterprise retailers on average ship from 87 locations – but are they using this
geographical reach to their full advantage?
How? Shipping and fulfillment software can help retailers easily identify which
warehouse or retail store closest to the customer holds stock. This visibility is
advantageous as it not only reduces the time and effort it takes to fulfill orders,
it gives retailers the chance to save on carrier costs as the distance between the
dispatch and delivery destinations decreases.
4 – ACCELERATE ORDER FULFILLMENT WORKFLOW
To this day, we’re still taken aback when we hear of retailers who jump in and
out of IT programs to fulfill orders. Even worse, some still rely on using Excel
spreadsheets – turning this process into a long and extremely manual exercise. In
fact, about 50% of retailers surveyed stated that platform compatibility, as well
as shipping and fulfillment automation, are issues that need to be fixed. It doesn’t
have to be this way.
How? With the power of shipping technology, you can streamline your order
fulfillment workflow to achieve economies of scale: from the cart where customers
are shown dynamic shipping options and quotes, to the fulfillment center where
orders are prioritized based on selected shipping service, packaging logic identifies
the best box size for the order, shipments are quoted from the nearest store with
stock on hand and compliant labels are ready to go.
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5 – COMMUNICATE TRACKING INFORMATION
Great shipping practices concludes with good communication. It’s one thing to
quote a date range for when your customer’s order will arrive, it’s another to give
them a definite timeline. Not only will it help build anticipation on the part of
your customer, communicating tracking updates will also ease the load for your
customer service teams – especially at peak trading periods where over 40% of
retailers struggled with shipping.
How? Think beyond the general email updates – how about enabling regular text
or SMS updates – maybe even explore real-time tracking? Or give customers better
control, by giving them the ability to edit shipping information while goods are
in transit. Of course, these tactics would also apply with returns shipping, where
your customers will appreciate having a range of shipping options and good
communications as part of a seamless return experience.
Much like the important role that payments, email marketing, site search
and analytics play, investing in better shipping and fulfillment practices can
supercharge your Magento store performance in both the short and long run.
To help merchants streamline even further, Temando is powering the upcoming
Magento Shipping, so leave your details here to find out more about how this will
transform the way you ship. To find out more about how UK retailers are faring
when it comes to shipping and fulfillment, download the Temando 2017 State of
Shipping in Commerce report.
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UNDERSTANDING SITE SEARCH,
MERCHANDISING AND NAVIGATION
TO GROW ON MAGENTO
04
THIS CHAPTER WAS WRITTEN BY CELEBROS
Celebros is an industry leader in Concept Based Semantic Site Search and the only Site Search Magento Premier Partner. Founded in 2000, Celebros revolutionized e-commerce by creating intelligent, concept-
based semantic site search for online stores. The Celebros Site Search has over 250 NLP (Natural Language Processing) algorithms that return the most accurate and relevant answers for each query, and directly empowers e-commerce website visitors to search for their product using their very own unique
search queries, language and vernacular. Learn more ››
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How to create a cohesive online shopping ecosystem, driven by conversions
The ability of an ecommerce platform to connect shoppers with products quickly and
efficiently has a profound impact on the store’s bottom line. Customers experiencing
few barriers tend to purchase more often, with higher cart values and in more frequent
patterns. A seamless online shopping experience equates to a satisfied shopper and an
eventual brand advocate.
And the result of that? More revenue dollars.
The strategy for boosting conversions and generating more revenue is a multifaceted
one, involving several core features of your ecommerce—namely learning site search,
merchandising and navigation.
Let’s explore these 3 puzzle pieces in a bit more detail.
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THE IMPORTANCE OF MACHINE-LEARNING SITE SEARCH
Site search could be the first or last tool your customers use to find the products
they’re looking for. Regardless, it needs to be the most accurate, allowing them to
instantly view applicable search results and refine them until their desired item is
found. For this reason, there’s no substitute for machine learning site search.
How does it work?
Learning site search does away with keyword matching or ineffectual parsing,
to deliver intelligent results that mirror the demands of a shopper. Better still, a
machine-learning search function knows what your shoppers are trying to say, even
if they’re not saying it.
It’ll process brand names, colors, spelling errors, quantities, misnomers and more
with speed and accuracy. It locks on shoppers’ intentions by extracting concepts
and relying on smart product classification– regardless of size and variety. It
becomes the basis of advanced merchandizing and recommendations which are a
must in shop/customer interactions.
In short, machine learning site search is the shortest link between a customer and a
product — which is just a few short clicks from a conversion.
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HOW DOES IT WORK?
Learning site search does away with keyword matching or ineffectual parsing,
to deliver intelligent results that mirror the demands of a shopper. Better still, a
machine-learning search function knows what your shoppers are trying to say,
even if they’re not saying it.
It’ll process brand names, colors, spelling errors, quantities, misnomers and more
with speed and accuracy. It locks on shoppers’ intentions by extracting concepts
and relying on smart product classification– regardless of size and variety. It
becomes the basis of advanced merchandizing and recommendations which are a
must in shop/customer interactions.
In short, machine learning site search is the shortest link between a customer and
a product — which is just a few short clicks from a conversion.
No algorithm runs perfectly forever. No algorithm is a magic bullet – especially
in Ecommerce, which is constantly affected by seasons and trends. Shop owners
need to constantly cultivate and tweak their machine learning advantages by using
ML search based tools such as campaigns, recommended products, etc.
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BUILT-IN DICTIONARY
A great site search will also have a built-in dictionary to prevent empty results
from returning when a search is misspelled. A built-in dictionary indicates when
customers are misspelling unique words (such as brand names) and gives the
ability to manually enter misspellings into the dictionary. It also comes in handy
when shops wish to stay up to speed with slang, social concepts related to brands
they carry, and the ever-popular social media abbreviations.
PRO TIP: PREVENT EMPTY RESULTS
If visitors are searching for a brand you don’t carry, you can add it as a misspelling to the dictionary and have it correct to whatever search term
you would like. Instead of seeing ‘no results found’ your customers could see ‘sorry we don’t carry Nike, we searched for Adidas instead.’
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UTILIZING SMART MERCHANDISING
Site search analytics provide data for the next logical step in optimizing your
ecommerce: Merchandising.
Analyzing search data allows you to see specifically what your shoppers are
looking for and understand why they’re not finding it. This is where merchandising
plays a key role—it places the most-wanted, hardest-to-find products front and
center.
Merchandising data can be continually dissected and leveraged to boost your
ecommerce revenue, namely because:
It’s continually changing, meaning there’s always new needs to be met and new
products to be focalized.
It personalizes your offerings. Depending on your various marketing channels,
you’re able to leverage different products to different applicable audiences.
It entices your shoppers. Finally, knowing your in-demand products allows you
to run deals, create sales funnels and entice shoppers at crucial buying points
across your site.
PRO TIP: SMART MERCHANDIZING
Smart merchandizing tools enable users to create fast ad hoc product categories featuring all relevant products related to a specific event or
concept (Create a Valentine’s Day category and drag to it all products that can be bought as Valentine gifts). This will enable you to stay ahead of the
game when it comes to preparing for your shoppers’ needs.
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MAKING NAVIGATION EASIER
The final piece of the puzzle is one that fits seamlessly with merchandising:
navigation. It simply means making it easy for shoppers to traverse your store, to
find items that A) they want or B) appeal to them. More than that, it’s also a natural
way to promote a clean, organized platform that’s easy and intuitive for customers
to use.
PRO TIP: FIRST THINGS FIRST
Items that appear first or last on you navigation are most effective, as Psychology studies show that, attention and retention are highest
for things that appear at the beginning and at the end. Place the most important items at the beginning of the navigation and the least
important items in the middle.
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HOW TO DO IT?
You shop uses navigation to better define and display your product categories, to
nest product groups or to display top-merchandised products within drop-down
menus.
Use data derived from search results and merchandizing efforts to position
best-selling items clearly within navigation, while also making your peripheral
sellers easy to find.
And, of course, navigation applies beyond products! Consider revamping
navigation to make charts, comparisons, reviews, articles, FAQs, shipping/
returns information and more all easy to find.
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PUTTING THE PUZZLE TOGETHER
Learning site search, merchandising and navigation all feed off of one another and
all work together to facilitate the customer experience. Modifying and optimizing
one facet can have beneficial effects on conversions—looking at all three from an
overhead view could dramatically improve the revenue you’re seeing!
Understanding the customer experience is key to understanding where conversions
happen or why shoppers leave with nothing. To gain insight into this process
on your ecommerce, start by looking at your site search, merchandizing and
navigation.
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SURPRISE WEBINAR - WHAT
YOUR MAGENTO STORE
SHOULD LOOK LIKE IN 2018
05
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In our surprise webinar hosted October 18th, 2017, Magento Premier Technology
partners Nosto and dotmailer teamed up to share successful combinations of strategies
to extend the core capabilities of Magento Commerce in 2018. Watch the 45 minute
webinar recording to learn which strategies and tech stack powering those strategies
you should be eyeing closing in on 2018.
WATCH HERE! ››
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HOW TO BEAT THE BURDEN OF
TAX COMPLIANCE TO SPEED UP
YOUR MAGENTO STORE
06
THIS CHAPTER WAS WRITTEN BY VERTEX
Vertex is the leading and most trusted provider of comprehensive, integrated tax technology solutions for corporations worldwide. Since 1978, companies from around the world have relied on Vertex for our
unparalleled expertise in tax technology and data management. Vertex combines sophisticated software and an award-winning team of tax experts to help Magento merchants stay on top of ever-changing tax
laws. Use Vertex for simple sales and use tax calculations, or all the way through the filing and remittance process. Vertex’s Magento 2 extension is available in Marketplace for both Enterprise and Community
Editions. Learn more ››
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In this chapter you’ll learn all about the supercharged power of Vertex, and how they
help alleviate the burden of calculating sales and use tax during the checkout process
on your Magento site.
Picture this: you’ve made the decision to choose Magento as your online shopping
cart, business is booming and your webstore is growing significantly and on
its way to going global. Things look promising, don’t they? Except there’s one
obstacle standing in the way of your victory: the dreaded task of dealing with tax
challenges outside of your comfort zone — and fast.
Many retailers using Magento still rely on manual sales tax processes that increase
compliance risks and the possibility of audits. Trying to keep up with taxability
codes and ever-changing tax laws when selling and shipping through your online
store makes any Magento seller groan.
These issues are particularly acute for online stores for three major reasons:
Consequences of Growth: Expanding into new product offerings can quickly
multiply the complexities of sales and use tax management. Taxation rules can
vary widely even for similar product types; for example, when an apparel item
is identified as a luxury item versus essential, or if food and beverages are sold
by an eating establishment instead of a grocery store.
State-by-State Nuances: Ecommerce and the use of third-party warehouse
and fulfillment services simplify expansion to new markets but they can quickly
complicate tax calculations, making it difficult to clarify exactly where nexus
exists.
Audit by Automation: States are more actively pursuing sales tax collections,
using big data-style analytics and automated solutions, as well as employing
third-party companies that are paid a percentage of taxes and fees collected.
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5 SIGNS YOUR MAGENTO STORE NEEDS A SALES AND USE TAX AUTOMATION SOLUTION
Now that we’ve identified the many tax pains of selling online, let’s figure out your
tax complexities.
By automating your sales and use tax processes, you will be freed of the tax
burden and risk associated with selling online – allowing you to focus on growing
your business and satisfying your customers. So how do you know when it’s time
to give up your manual process of calculating sales tax within your Magento Store?
If you identify with any of these 5 signs, it’s time to reevaluate your tax game plan…
You’re selling products and/or services into multiple states where your
business does not have tangible physical presence. In these cases, remote
seller nexus rules could apply. These nexus rules have and will likely continue to
change regularly. Managing use taxes on sales made by out-of-state sellers to
in-state customers manually places a hefty research and maintenance burden
on your business processes. An automation solution alleviates that burden.
You’re selling different types of products into multiple dates. Variability in
product taxability state-to-state has historically been a headache to manage,
and there are no signs that this will change. In some states, product taxability
varies state-to-state, based on product type, date sold, ingredients or how the
product will be used.
You’re running a brick and mortar business along with your online Magento
store. You may have storefronts in a different tax jurisdictions within one state,
or even across state lines.
You have storefronts in one state, even in one single tax jurisdiction — but
have distribution centers in multiple states. Or you may have one physical
storefront in a single tax jurisdiction, but sell online to tax jurisdictions across
the U.S. and beyond.
The mere thought of a tax audit send shivers down the spines of your CEO,
CFO, CTO, VP of finance, accountants and tax professionals.
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IS YOUR BUSINESS MAKING CROSS-BORDER OR IN-COUNTRY SALES IN EUROPE? TOP TIPS AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR EUROPEAN BUSINESSES GOING INTO THE US
Do your homework: Ensure tax expertise is close to the business, know what,
where and when the company is planning ahead of time, so you can be
prepared for the challenges that lie ahead.
Seek local knowledge: Tax accountants trained in Europe are unlikely to have
the knowledge base required to manage US rules. Seek local knowledge before
making a sale.
Use automation: With so many laws, variations and legislative loopholes, trying
to do everything with a spreadsheet and desk research makes no sense. Use
automated systems such as a tax performance engine wherever possible to
keep compliant in the US.
Let’s start looking at how much easier your life would be by embracing the power
of tax automation…
It’s the most wonderful time of the year! Is your Magento store ready for The
Hendersons’?
The holiday season is in full swing, and so is the retail tax complexity
surrounding the Hendersons’ to-do list.
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See How Tax Automation Cleared Up This Magento Merchants Tax Headache
Event Network, a company that operates more than 100 retail gift stores and
Magento sites for independent organizations with nationwide customer bases, has
witnessed firsthand the time and effort that is saved by automating their sales tax
processes through Vertex.
Event Network has learned that deploying an effective sales tax management
system can make the difference between processing tax quickly and dealing with a
drawn-out process for filing monthly sales tax returns.
But like any other network of retail sites and stores, it has its challenges. For
instance, before Event Network deployed a new sales tax management system last
year, it would take a significant amount of time each month to reconcile all of the
sales transactions with sales tax records for all of the e-commerce sites and stores
they operate.
“With the old system, it would take me the first three weeks of every month to
reconcile sales and tax data. Now I’m done by the 10th of every month.”
That has freed their Sales Tax Manager up to do more work on various projects
in Event Network’s accounting department that help the company operate more
efficiently and profitably.
Tax is calculated and shown within Magento based off of the product and ship to address
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KEY TAKEAWAYS
We’ve now identified your company’s tax complexities, learned how sales and use
tax automation can help your Magento store, and have witnessed how a Magento
merchant has saved time and eliminated the tax risks of selling online. While some
of us love to talk about the details of tax, others heads may be spinning. To make
things easier, let’s recap what we’ve covered in his chapter so you’re well armed
with key takeaways.
Tax is complex because…
There can be different rates for each jurisdiction
Rates are constantly changing
All products are not created equal in the tax world – they can be are taxed
differently
States are looking for new revenue sources and hiring more auditors
A Sales and Use Tax Automation solution can…
Streamline your entire sales tax process within your Magento store –from
collection to reporting
Save time – you will be freed of manually looking up product tax codes
across jurisdictions
Stay compliant and relieve the stress of an audit
Assure compliance with state and local tax holidays
Access every product code in every jurisdiction
Validate taxes for each ship-to address
Sell more products and reach more customers.
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We hope it’s been a valuable one, and that you’ve learned key lessons that
empower you to make the most of your Magento commerce efforts. We’ve not
only guided you through how you can supercharge your Magento store using
personalization, shipping, search, email marketing, taxation – but have also hosted
a surprise webinar ‘What Your Magento Store Should Look Like In 2018’ to help
set you up for success! Now that you’ve learned what strategies you should focus
on (and because we’re all about keeping the supercharge vibes alive!), we’d love to
send you off with something special that will help you apply your newly acquired
Magento knowledge in the coming year. Without further ado, here’s your sneak
peek of…
RETARGETING IN 2018
Did you know that 46% of internet users consult social media when making
a purchase decision? No surprise here, seeing as social media – Facebook, in
particular – leads the pack when it comes to how consumers digest information.
Mobile is also a heavy target for marketers and consumers alike – with 43.7%
of site visits coming from the comfort of our smartphones. And seeing as the
average customer on a Magento-powered site tends to visit a store 3 times before
committing to a purchase, extending the power of your reach has never been so
important.
So how do re-engage existing customers using the power of social media and the
popularity of mobile to lead them to the checkout page?
Well, you already know how powerful Dynamic Product Ads are to increasing your
ROAS (at Nosto we see, on average, a 12x ROAS with retailers using DPA), but in
true supercharge fashion, the world of customer retargeting is moving towards
a strategy that satisfies visual shoppers everywhere. This is where Facebook
Collection Ads come in.
AND SO WE REACH THE END OF OUR SUPERCHARGE JOURNEY... FOR NOW
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Facebook Collection Ads are a way to spice up your ad campaign strategy by
leveraging the power of inspirational content to promote your products. The
feature allows you to insert a video on the top half of the ad, with recommended
products below. And it’s a hit when it comes to conversions: Collection Ad Units
have potential to increase your ad’s Click Through Rate by over 35%.
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Alongside video content in ad campaigns, geolocation is another key strategy to
consider when mapping out your retargeting plan. By collecting behavioral data
from your consumers, you can tailor the shopping experience even further by
offering products relevant to wherever they’re shopping from. Say a visitor enters
an apparel site from Miami and another from New York – in the middle of winter.
Using behavioral data, Miami shopper will see summer-appropriate apparel, where
New York shopper sees more winter-friendly products.
And your teaser ends here!
Thank you for reading through
this guide! We wish you a
supercharged year and invite you
to have further discussions with us
by clicking the logos below.
THANK YOU!
Get started with Magento (855) 733-5533
Schedule a Demo https://magento.com/schedule-a-demo
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